Even More Lyrics

There are more lyrics. First, for those new to my songs see this post for an explanation, although this batch of songs is mostly from sources where I agree with the original lyrics (that's the last 4, the first three are based on the songs I don't agree with).

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).


I'm going to start with three that really aren't that great, and end with the two that are the best.

1. Ireland Awake. The broad republican struggle in Ireland.
2. Make a Stand. N. Ireland.
3. Free at Last. Republican struggle in N. Ireland.
4. Spirit of '32. The need for working-class unity among Protestants and Catholics in N. Ireland.
5. Orange Tories. Class conflict in N. Ireland.
6. Surf Fermanagh. N. Ireland from a British dissident view.

7. The 26. An appeal from a N. Ireland Catholic to the population of the South for support in the Peace Process.

"Ireland Awake," based on "Europe Awake" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here

1. This is largely aimed at people in the Republic.
2.  This is also about unarmed republicanism, and a lot of it could also come from nationalists.
3. The second line refers to how republicanism was widespread in Ireland during the War of Indendence.
4. In May of 2006, a Catholic teenager was beaten to death in Ballymena, the police and his family said the motive was sectarian.
5. The Gardai are the police in the South. In general they're probably a bit better than American and N. Ireland police (for one thing, they're mostly unarmed), but they have powers they shouldn't, are very hostile to republicans, and can be quite brutal. UPDATE 2/23/09 That line isn't meant to apply to all Gardai, but probably some small minority of them.
6. Ruth Dudley Edwards is an Irish scholar who is very pro-Unionist, not to mention very conservative.
7. The DUP is the Democratic Unionist Party.
**8. 29% of this version is me, 71% is the original (and I skipped the 3rd line of the Chorus).
9. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
10. Skrewdriver were British and supported the unionist causes in N. Ireland.
11. UPDATE 2/11/11 the 2nd line of the 3rd verse, is basically referring to an Ireland with an economy worse than it is now, probably some other things, all of which can be partly blamed on the partition of the island.

Ireland come join us for one final republican thrust
What has happened to the struggle that once belonged to all of us
A capitalistic economy, the divided working-class is too weak
Teenagers aren't safe in Ballymena, what solution do we seek?

Chorus:
Ireland awake, for the nationalists sake
Ireland awake, before it's too late

We've got to get together soon, and take our nation back
The Gardai and the traitorous politicians should be sacked
You can't turn on the TV because you know what you're going to see
Either Ruth Dudley Edwards or the lying DUP

Chorus

We've got to get together now, and wage our nation's fights
If we don't act quickly, we're going to face the endless night
We've got to take our nation back, from all the traitorous scum
You'd better believe it, our day will soon have to come

Chorus

********

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Make A Stand," based on "Fight Back" by Kill Baby Kill, the lyrics here.

1. "Unionist bastards" I'm not sure to what degree they have learned, in terms of being non-sectarian. For example, they still seem to think it's appropriate for the Orange Order to march through Catholic areas. For more info on why that's not a good idea, see this (and give money to the PFC, they're going through a funding crisis, and they're great)
2. In the NI context, I'm not sure exactly how to spin the last line of the second verse, although it seems pretty harmless. It could mean that republicans should stick to their beliefs and, baring some advancement of the republican agenda under the Good Friday Agreement (which is possible), wait for a better day to continue the armed struggle (of course, 9/11 means that day is a long way off, but if the armed struggle resumes at some point, maybe the rest of the world will put enough preassure on London that it will be successful, unlike the 1970-1997 period)
3. In general, there are other lines that seem to fit less than perfectly in the puzzle I'm putting together, but they seem okay.
**4. 8% of the lyrics are mine, 92% are the original.
5. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
6. This poem will seem barely twisted at all, but the band are from Holland (I believe) and would have probably gone with Ian Stuart's opinion about N. Ireland (he supported the unionists).
7. This is more or less about the IRA, although some of it could come from unarmed republicans and even from nationalists.

Will you stand and watch them take our Ireland down the drain?
Will you stay there on the fence, just sit there and complain?
Or will you listen to the republican's voice, which the Dail ignores
Will you fight to take your country back, take back what's rightfully yours?

Chorus:
Fight Back! Against the vested powers
Fight Back! Against right-wing lies
Fight Back! Against the corrupt system
Fight Back! Before your nation dies

The richman has a laugh, on the nationalist working-class
Will you stand your ground or will you sit down on your ass?
The unionist bastards haven't learned, will you let them get their way?
Will you stick to your guns and keep the faith for a better day?

We'll make a stand, to save our land, destroy this Orange state
We won't bow down to anyone, it's us they love to hate
It's time to face the enemy now that's causing all the fuss
It's up to me and you to take back what they took from us

*****

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Free At Last," based on "Hail The New Dawn" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Although there have been some tendencies like this in the past, I think that today very few republicans, and even fewer in Sinn Fein and the IRA, want to take state power through force (UPDATE 2/21/20 I doubt that at this point a single member of SF wants that, even if I were typing this before the recent election). UPDATE 2/11/11 I should also explain that I don't believe the British would be driven out by armed struggle alone, as the lyrics at one point seem to imply.
2. In general, it's not the most timely, although the fighting could be a reference to the non-violent sort, or a future armed struggle.
3. Bread is a symbol of economic justice.
4. My feelings about dissident republicans are here, towards the bottom.
5. UPDATE 2/23/09 I just realized that the last verse in reference to dissident republicans (who aren't on cease-fire) only makes sense if the fighting referred to earlier in the song is of the non-violent sense, and even then it's a little odd (this reflects a contradiction in the original).
**6. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original, and I ignored those lines that were just a chant.
7. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
8. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride within N.Ireland is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
9. Skrewdriver were British and supported the unionist causes in N. Ireland.
10. This is about armed republicanism, basically the IRA.

Comrades, the voices of the dead Battalions
Of those who fell, that Ireland might be great
Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us
And urge us on that we gain the 32-County Socialist state

Chorus:
The streets are still, the final battle has ended
Flushed with the fight, we proudly hail the dawn
See over the streets, the Republican emblem is waving
Triumphant standards of a people reborn

Our fathers and daughters, friends and brothers
Of the small farmers and working-class, for who's sake they bled
Against the vested powers, Loyalist front and massed reaction
We lead the fight for freedom and for bread

People who we trusted, sadly have let us down
Ignoring the people's wishes, they won't work for peace
We will struggle forever, until we unite Ireland
But at least for now, the armed struggle must cease

*******

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Spirit of '32" based on "Work Together" by The Oppressed (Anti-Fascist Oi!), original lyrics are here.

1. The Orange Tories are the two main Unionist parties (plus 1 small party, 1 samll-medium party and some independents), who are basically centre-right. There are Green Tories, but among those Tories with power, only something like 1/4 are Green.
2. Fenian is a derogatory term for republican (in that sense it has been adopted by republicans) but is also often a derogatory term for Catholic; Prod is a derogatory term for Protestant, although I know that "Proddie" has been adopted by Northern Protestants.
3. '32 refers to the 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots, by the unemployed in Belfast- the first several days there were was a fair amount of unity between nationalists and unionists, but the police focused their violence on the former, and shortly after that Unionist leaders encouraged sectarianism, especially with serious competition over jobs at that time, to break the unity of the unemployed.
**4. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original (this reflects the change I made to the last line of the 2nd verse).
5. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
6. This is about unarmed republicans and unity between working-class Catholics and Protestants.
7. UPDATE 11/4/10: I have re-written the last line of the 2nd verse.

Dreaming of how life could be
If Ireland was free
If no one voted for the Orange Tories
It's up to you, it's up to me, to me!

We gotta work, work, work together
Fight, fight, stay alive
Work, work, work together
We're fighting to survive
Connolly's vision we'll keep alive

Work for all in a care free state
No more anger, no more hate
No more fighting, Fenian and Prod
In '32 we all took on the riot squad

*******

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"Orange Tories" based on "Same Old Story" by The Oppressed (Anti-fascist Oi!), lyrics are here.

1. Partition is the divison of Ireland.
2. I'm not quite sure how much this song applies to the current situation, especially with how reformed the police have become at this point. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the stuff about schools and hospitals applies to earlier periods either (I'm fairly sure it at least sort of applies to the current situation UPDATE 2/14/11 At this point it definitely applies as services are being cut).
3. If it is about the current situation, it's not meant as an attack on SF members who currently or in recent years were in charge of health and education. I heard that when SF had health around 2000, that sector was already in horrible shape. In general, as far as I can tell (and if someone could point me to a credible source clarifying this, either way, I'd appreciate it) the Assembly and Executive have only limited power over how big the overall budget is (UPDATE 2/14/09 I've slightly tightened this up and am pretty sure they have very little control over the overall size of the budget, and also SF members have far from total control over their departments), and SF, as about 1/3 of the Government and 1/4 of the Assembly, have got very little control over the budget. Overall, I'm confident they're probably doing almost as good a job as can be done, and there are arguments against them taking up the position of opposition to avoid being connected to bad policies. Also, SF abolished the 11 Plus, a test school kids take at age 11 to determine what schools they go to- I've read that working-class kids disproportionately went to the less advanced schools. There's been some dificulty with replacing it, but as far as I can tell, abolishing it was a good idea. (UPDATE 4/14/09 A speech about 10 months ago by the head of the Northern part of the Irish Labour Party indicated that SF is not the problem with the Executive, and as recently as late 2005 he expressed some positive feelings for SF)
4. Orange Tories are Unionists, that community's political center is certainly center-right.
5. The issue of how Protestant workers were treated in N. Ireland under Unionist rule from the early 1920s until 1972 when London took over, is one reason I strongly reccommend people read Michael Farrell's book "Northern Ireland: The Orange State." It's an amazing book. Farrell is so well respected that in the 1990s he was a Co-Chair of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, basically the ACLU in Ireland. Unfortunately, the vast majority aimed their hatred not at the bosses, but at Catholics.
6. There are also Green Tories, nationalists, but in the past they had basically no power, and today I think they represent probably something like 1/4 of NI Tories with any power, considering the continuing economic inequality (the last I checked, recently, Catholics were 50% more likely to be unemployed than Protestants) and the fact that the political center of the nationalist community is center-left.
**7. 26% of this version is me, 74% is the original.
8. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
9. This is meant to be about class war; not always non-violent and possibly armed, on the workers side.

Look around the North and see the state it's in
Discrimination, and repression, because of partition
Hospitals are closing and schools are falling down
The Orange Tories get the life-boat and the rest of us can drown

And every day we get the same old story
Just another lie from another Orange Tory
And every day we get the same old story
Just another lie from another Orange Tory

One law for the Protestant, who let's his religion speak
No law for the Catholics, because Northern equality is weak
So, you Protestant workers, before it gets too late
Open up your eyes and see the Orange Tory you should hate

One day you will understand just what they do to you
And then when you see the light, you'll know just what to do
'Cause all the years of suffering, and all the broken hearts
Will be remembered when the revolution starts

********

"Surf Fermanagh," based on "Surf Nicaragua" by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly famliar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberally and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). The original lyrics are here.

1. There's actually a British version of GI Joe, I think it's called Action Force, but I decided to stick with GI Joe.
2. South Armagh is a staunchly republican area, and during most of the conflict the security forces could only operate by helicopter, they were at such great risk of IRA attack.
3. Fermanagh is a County in N. Ireland, and it actually does have two large bodies of water, but it's landlocked.
4. This is basically about the early years of the conflict (the 70s), although it would sort of also apply to the 80s. The line about maintaining the control the Unionists had isn't perfect, but in some ways it makes sense (London used internment as demanded by the unionists, the British Army forced Orange Order marches through Catholic areas, the British Army kept the anti-internment march which would become known as Bloody Sunday out of the center of Derry as demanded by the unionists, and the BA failed to break the 1974 anti-Sunningdale loyalist strike which brought down a sort of good effort at resolving the conflict). (It is slightly flawed in one way- towards the very beginning of the conflict the British BRIEFLY DID talk with the IRA, but overwhelmingly they were more interested in the SDLP).
5. Dublin and Cork refer to the War of Independence in Ireland, I think Dublin and Cork were two of the main centres of resistance.
6. To a significant degree, the security forces of NI before London took direct control in 1972 were supported by London.
7. The Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Fein's more moderate rival, has sometimes been referred to as the "Stoop Down Low Party" (see here). From a republican and socialist perspective, they're horrible- they have even undermined non-violent efforts. Until sometime in the 1990s, the British were more or less inclined to isolate republicans and do some kind of deal with the SDLP, instead of addressing the situation by beginning a process of withdrawl (they haven't really moved much at all on the question of withdrawl, but the Good Friday Agreement is better than earlier efforts, and the British significantly changed their attitude about SF being involved) (UPDATE 2/20/11 I can't believe I forgot about this, but there were SOME negoatiations between Provisional republicans and London in the very early years of the conflict and also in the mid-1970s. But in general, the idea was to isolate and destroy republicans.)
**8. 28% of this version is me, 72% is the original.
9. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
10. UPDATE 3/24/17 this is sort of from the perspective of a Briton who’s fairly critical of their government’s actions in the North. If the last line of the 2nd verse sounds like they might support the BA, they don’t and I THINK that line is not in conflict with the anti-occupation position.
10. UPDATE 2/14/19 I Changed "Dublin" to Vietnam. I know the UK wasn't involved in Vietnam, but it was a good example of gueriila war . And I like to make my blog as internationalist as possible without being obnoxious about it. And Vietnam was right there in the original.

I know a place where you're all going to go
They'll pay you to kill if you're eighteen years old
First you'll need a haircut, and then some new clothes
They'll stick you in Belfast, to play GI Joe

Chrous:
You fight for "Democracy and the British Way"
But you're not in your country, what am I doing here you say
Now it's too late, you're entering south Armagh
If you had brought your surfboard, you could surf Fermanagh

What is this we're fighting for, what's our ultimate goal
To prop up the Unionists and maintain their control
Republican resistance grows deeper every day
The situation "worsens," more soldiers on the way

Chorus

Lessons we have learned, are easy to forget
Hints of Vietnam and Cork, how soon we all forget
First we sent them rifles, now go in the troops
And our best idea is to make a deal with the stoops

Chorus

*****

UPDATE 6/10/09 I'm changing the names of those songs that had retained the original name.

"The 26" based on "One Nation" by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly famliar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberally and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). The original lyrics are here (Although it's not clear what it actually is, according to other sites, the very last line is "Why don't you understand?")

1. This is largely intended as a song to help recruit people in the South to support the republican movement, in the context of the early years of the Peace Process (most would say it started sometime in the mid 1990s, and this is about the period around 2000).
2. The issue of multi-racial unity isn't the primary issue, but it is there, and SF is good at anti-racism.
3. I said state instead of nation because there's already a nation of all religions, there needs to be a 32-County state with religious freedom, it's not calling for a formal relationship between religions and the State.
4. The soldiers being referred to are British.
5. At one point about 3-10 years ago, there was a lot of work done to dismantle British security force bases for them, mostly by Sinn Fein Youth.
6. Peace- I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said that "Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice."
7. There are some people in the South who support the British presence.
8. The last thing I would say is that Irish unity must wait until the British public comes around, but in the past efforts were made on that, and today, with the end of the armed struggle, that's even more important. Also, although it's not super clear, it's pretty safe to say the IRA basically never or almost never intentionally killed innocent civilians in Britain.
9. TOM is the Troops Out Movement, a British organization that more or less supports SF.
10. At one point, around 1990, one of the the Birmingham Six (they spent about 15 years in British jails for a crime they didn't committ) at a rally in Derry, said A: the British Army should be sent home in boxes, and B: the English working-class people are the "salt of the earth."
**11. 27% of this version is me, 73% is the original.
12. There are 26 counties in the South (the Republic).
13. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
14. This is about non-violence, with the sort of exception of trying to dismantle security force installations.
4/5/11 UPDATE 15. I felt that there was something wrong with the lyrics, and I fixed that by re-writing a small amount of words to have the poem come from the voice of a northern nationalist (i.e. a Catholic living in N. Ireland). Below is the new version.

A vision of unselfishness, a union of black and white
One state of all religions, it's clear within my sight
I see it clear, no hate, no fear, no soldiers come to die
A state that's free and thrives on peace, no greed no threat to life

We'll dismantle the weapons of war which loom over our heads
We'll take on the British war machine that caused so many deaths
Don't close your eyes to the atrocities which abound
Don't stand and watch until you’re six feet under ground

The future is our burden, don’t stand and watch
Because the Peace Process might crumble and British units march
We all work towards our goal, one nation unity
And you must be the convert, who works towards Irish peace

There are those around you who stand and say NO WAY
They support the British presence, say it's here to stay
But no one knows until we try, what we all we can do
Don’t stand by, watch children die, it's up to me and you

Our island is divided, the boundary has been drawn
We must continue until the British have withdrawn
And we don't judge the British by the government of their land
The Troops Out Movement will work to educate them, until they understand


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).